Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
November 29, 2012

kingston — A basic school teacher is battling for life and the parent of a five-year-old boy is behind bars after allegedly knocking her unconscious, only weeks after another teacher was attacked at the Dunrobin Primary School in St. Andrew.
An assistant teacher at the Timothy Burke Basic School in Lucky Hill, St. Mary, who was at the scene of the more recent attack, had to flee for her life after the parent who was also employed to the early-childhood institution as a groundsman directed his fury at her.
The father of the five-year-old student did not take kindly to 44-year-old teacher Jacqueline Samuels chastising his son for continuously urinating in the classroom instead of informing him, and unleashed his anger at the two educators.
Emotions gushed from Samuels’ daughter, Stacey-Ann Smith, who visited her comatose mother in the Intensive Care Unit at the Kingston Public Hospital to which the injured woman was transferred.
Stacey-Ann told The Gleaner Tuesday that she was seeing for the first time the gash on her mother’s head, from the brick that struck her, as the medical practitioners had removed the bandage.
“Me nuh feel good at all,” she mumbled. “All in my mind is revenge right now … me very upset because the child is five years old, he is not a baby … look at my mother.”
Stacey-Ann’s uncle, Edmondo Samuels (brother of the wounded educator), was just as upset.
“Me feel real bad,” he echoed. “This is not a joke. I am going to be meeting with the principal … .”
The accused parent reportedly turned himself in to the Gayle police later in the day. He has since been charged with attempted murder. He was scheduled to face the court today.
Based on what her brother was told by the assistant teacher, who narrowly escaped injury, Samuels had expressed frustration with the child’s repeated refusal to inform her of his need for release and admonished the child, handed him a mop and instructed him to wipe up the area.
“The little boy was messing up himself and the class daily, as a result of which she spoke to him,” Edmondo said.
He said word reached the child’s father, who accosted Samuels and accused her of “taking step” with his son. (Gleaner)